Judging 12
fireflywatcher_ford
JUDGING 12
Blue was standing on the tile in the hall. A puddle was forming at his feet. "Acer! Why is there an electric outlet inside the shower?"
"Hell if I know, Blue. It was there when I bought the house and I couldn't find any tile to match. I couldn't just leave a hole in the wall."
"I had my back to the spray and noticed it when the stream hit it dead on. I thought I was fixing to fry and I jumped out. It takes showering to a whole new level," Blue told him.
"Aw hell Blue, I disconnected the wires and siliconed the damn thing. This is an old house and where the shower is was probably the washer and dryer space years ago. The old lady I bought the place from used the shower to water her house plants. Maybe she had a light hung from the ceiling. Women usually take baths and I'm sure she did, too," Acer explained.
Blue turned without saying anything, to go back and dry off. He slipped on the wet tile and landed on his butt. Acer ran to him and helped him up. "See now, that outlet ain't the only thing wrong with this house. Any fool knows you buy textured tile for floors. The smooth type is slippery as owl shit when it's wet," Acer told him. "I never was here a lot and spending money to fix everything seemed like a waste. Most of the house is hard wood floors but they put tile here in the hall, in the kitchen, and for entries at the front and back doors."
"It feels like I broke something," Blue replied. Acer looked at his butt and Blue continued, "Not me, the fucking floor. I felt something snap."
Acer looked down, "Yeah, you cracked a tile. I've got spare tile to fix this, though."
"My so called best friend in high school and I helped his dad every summer and sometimes during school. He was a contractor mostly doing remodeling. I learned it all and I'll replace the broken tile one morning while you're busy if you show me where the spares are," Blue assured him.
"Women are highly overrated. You cook and clean. You can work on the house, and you are making a damn good farmer. Straight men don't know what they're missing," Acer responded. He rubbed on Blue's butt and asked, "Are you sore back there?"
"Hey, you can play with my butt whether I'm sore or not," Blue answered. "You want to kiss it and make it all better?"
Acer bent down and licked Blue's left cheek. "It's probably sore from riding all day, anyway. I really like to spend a Sunday this way, though. Riding Ranger through my dad's pasture right there in a place that has only changed by cattle grazing it instead of buffalo, just the way God made it, is the best church for me. Having you beside me at the same time restores me, restores the peace in my soul. Did you have a good time?"
"You know I did," Blue replied. "I haven't ridden much but riding in the bar ditch along dirt roads just doesn't compare. I think Carl got the biggest kick out of it. You couldn't slap the smile off his face. The ride wore him and Paulie out. I thought they were getting cleaned up like I was but when I went in to take a shower I could hear them both cutting Zs."
"Come on and let's get you dried off," Acer instructed. "I shouldn't have taken mine so quick. If I'd waited a few minutes on you, showering would have been more fun and you wouldn't have freaked out seeing the outlet." Acer wrapped and arm around Blue and walked back to the bathroom with him. He took a towel and after fluffing Blue's hair, he brought it around his shoulders and used it to tug Blue along to the bedroom.
Acer gave special attention to each part of Blue's body as he dried him off, almost like giving him a massage with the towel between his hands and Blue's skin. Lastly, he started to dry Blue's groin but the shiny moist glow of Blue's cock head was too much for him to resist. He sprawled Blue backward across the bed and enveloped Blue's cock in his mouth until his nose was buried in Blue's bush.
"I'm going to have to wash some towels if we don't stop," Blue declared. "We'll both need another shower."
Acer lifted up and looked Blue in the eye. "So do you want me to stop?"
"Hell no, you'll know when it's time to stop. Just be sure to swallow it all. If you'll lay here beside me and let me do you at the same time it will be more fun, though," Blue answered.
Back in their jeans and boots, Acer and Blue sat on the front porch in the afternoon shade. At one end an old brick and welded steel grill, smoker, and oven had a fire going in its belly. The breeze carried the heat out and away from where they sat. Acer was picking out some songs on his guitar as Blue went out and played fetch with the dogs outside the screened in area.
Paulie and Carl had stirred from their nap and came out onto the porch with Paulie passing through to join Blue. The screen door banged shut behind him as the long spring jerked it back against the door frame. Carl silently sat across from Acer watching intently as Acer played.
"Do you play?" Acer asked him.
"No, I took piano from third grade to eighth. I took a lot of crap for that but if I'd taken guitar the other kids would've thought it was cool. I'd like to learn guitar sometime," Carl answered.
Acer leaned the guitar against the wall and got to his feet. "I don't have two guitars but I have an electric keyboard that does piano, organ, or synthesizer if you want to play with it. If you get a guitar, I'll teach you when I can and you can probably take it as an elective at the college," Acer told him. He went inside and came back with the keyboard. "I have an amp for this, too, but it's loud enough with an acoustic guitar as it is." It had legs that unfolded and Acer set it in front of Carl.
"I haven't touched a piano in five years," Carl confessed. "I don't know if I remember how to play anything."
"The mind forgets but the fingers remember," Acer encouraged him. "I can tell you the chords and you can play along with me. I'm sure we can manage something after a few tries."
Carl hit a high or discordant note that got a howl out of the two dogs. They ignored the balls and came to the porch where Paulie flung the door open for them to enter. Blue was right in his tracks and moved on through to return immediately with four beers.
"Is the brisket done?" Blue asked Acer when there was a pause in the playing.
"Oh, I'm sure it is," Acer answered. "It's been cooking for hours now."
A glint in Acer's eye and the tone of his reply told Blue that it was not the time for food yet. He flopped into a chair and focused his attention on the music. The songs had started out simple with Acer showing Blue the chords on the guitar. Carl began remembering more and could watch Acer hands on the fret board and match the chord on the keyboard without looking. He changed and Played the chords with his left hand and they melody with his right.
"My dad and granddad started teaching me to play when I was a kid," Acer told Carl. "I really miss the old man sometimes and playing songs I learned from him takes the sting out of it. The songs are old now. I've picked out new ones when I had time and gotten music from the internet for others."
"Alfredo plays with Billie when he's homesick for Mexico," Carl replied. "He bought a little squeeze box he plays, too. If you know 'Rancho Grande', Paulie and I've sung along enough to have it down." They'd already played 'Desperados', 'Red Headed Stranger', 'Your Cheatin' Heart', and 'Wasted Days and Wasted Nights'.
Acer said he did and Carl switched the keyboard to synthesizer and set it for accordion with a drum beat added. Blue and Paulie joined in singing.
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
TE VOY A HACER TUS CALZONES
COMO LOS USA EL RANCHERO
TE LOS COMIENZO DE LANA
TE LOS ACABO DE CUERO
ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
NUNCA TE FIES DE PROMESAS
NI MUCHO MENOS DE AMORES
QUE SI TE DAN CALABAZAS
VERAS LO QUE SON ARDORES
ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
PON MUY ATENTO EL OIDO
CUANDO RECHINE LA PUERTA
HAY MUERTOS QUE NO HACEN RUIDO
Y SON MUY GORDAS SUS PENAS
ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
"Hey, that was pretty good for some white boys," Carl exclaimed. He really seemed to be enjoying himself.
"Acer went in the house and came back with some printer copies of sheet music. "Let's try this one," he suggested. Carl changed the setting to guitar and bass for this song and they played.
Save me from this prison
Lord help me get away
Cause only you can save me now
From this misery
Cause I've been lost in my own place
And I'm getting' weary
How far is heaven
And I know I need to change
My ways of livin'
How far is heaven, Lord can you tell me
Cause I've been locked up way too long
In this crazy world, how far is heaven
I just keep on prayin' Lord
Just keep on livin', how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven
I just got to know how far, how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me
Tu que estas en alto cielo,
Echame tu bendiciòn
Cause I know there's a better place
Than this place I'm livin', how far is heaven
So I just got to show some faith
And just keep on giving, how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven
I just wanna know how far, how far is heaven,
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven,
'cause I just gotta know how far,
I just wanna know far
The Los Lonely Boys song didn't quite sound the same but it wasn't bad and since it was a Texas band they all knew the words and sang along. Acer set his guitar aside. "Let's eat something guys," He suggested.
Tommy and Bobby spent most nights in the third bedroom. They would run around with friends or visit family but returned to Acer's house to share a bed. That night they came in late and went straight to bed. Paulie and Carl were in bed, too. Acer tossed his beer bottle while Blue flipped off the lights and they went to bed, too. It had been a long day, a good day for a Sunday.
Acer's days went back to his routine of contacting and visiting sponsors, usually in the mornings, with the arrival of Monday. Afternoons were spent in leisure and trips fishing were frequent. Amarillo didn't really have lakes close by or stock tanks in pastures because it was all flat farm land. The hilly country down home was dotted with both and the rivers and creeks that passed through. They fished from the bank or from a dock like men fishing to bring home something to eat, not in a fancy boat for the sport of it. Most of the lakes had only a token section of lake cabins clustered together or none at all and the balance of the shore was lined by pastures and open woodland.
Cotton and Logan were frequent visitors to the house and sometimes came along on the fishing trips. Others who were old friends of Acer's stopped by to catch up on what he'd been up to and share a beer or two. A few were ladies.
Sunday morning rides through the pastures became the event of the week. One Sunday while riding through Cotton's pasture where it came down to the river, they stopped for a snack and a rest beside rocks with paintings done by unknown hands in ages past. On another ride the stop in Logan's pasture was to explore an old Texas Ranger outpost from the days of the republic. Its hand hewn stones were set into the earth with space above ground for windows to catch the breeze and a spring house still operating without human intervention. Steps led down into the structure. Logan's grandfather had replaced the roof with timbers and tin years before from the river willow poles and sod that were used when it was built. Two small rooms with a fireplace and work surface to divide them was all there was. Stone slabs had been hauled up from the river and built into the masonry for bunks and the work surface. It held six bunks but likely slept twelve men doubling up in each one. The second room could have held a table and chairs and for storage of supplies. The spring house was cooled by flowing water that bubbled up from the spring and ran through lead lined troughs to exit the room and rejoin the flow.
"The outpost is set so low into the ground it would be a fine storm shelter," Paulie remarked after they returned to the house. "Ain't no rock near Amarillo to build something like that. If it'd been built out of sod there, it'd have melted back into the dirt a long time ago."
Going inside after riding the pastures seemed like a sacrilege. They all sat on the porch and the dogs lay in the shade just outside. Acer had planted some pine trees he brought from Central Texas, some of the lost pines, loblolly pines but shorter and more drought adapted that their eastern cousins, when he bought the place. They shaded the front without any low growing limbs to keep trimmed. The dogs looked forward to Sundays as much as the men. They followed along and chased whatever critter they sniffed out along the way. One sharp whistle brought them back and returning home they were always worn out.
"So you've decided these Sunday rides are church for you, is that it?" Cotton asked. Acer nodded not wanting to get in some long discussion. "We grew up in the same church, Acer. They ain't spouting hate. I can't remember ever hearing a sermon condemning gays, they're easy going and accepting as far as I see it."
"I wouldn't go that far," Acer answered him. "They just don't talk about it. They aren't inclusive. They don't want to deal with the right or wrong of things and let you deal with it between yourself and God. You don't go anymore either."
"I go to funerals and weddings sometimes," Cotton replied.
"Hell, I do that, too," Acer came back. "We were taught that the old laws didn't apply because if we believed, the law was written in our hearts. All we needed was to believe, follow the ten commandments, do unto others as we'd have them do unto us, and to love one another. The churches let all the old laws go except one, a man shall not lay with another man. I don't think we're like a match that is struck, burns, and is gone. I still have my faith but this is the best church I've ever found for me."
"I went to one of those cowboy churches," Acer continued. "The guys had red eyes on Sunday morning and you could tell they were polishing belt buckles the night before and might not even remember who they slept with. They were looking to create their own version of God with their own set of rules that said what they did was allright. They were right there ready to condemn gays, too."
"Now I ain't going to condemn them either but I figure what is more important is being faithful to the one you make a commitment to and working things out when you hit a rough spot. Faithful might just mean being honest if you play outside the sandbox, but if kids were in the picture that would be out, too. I'm not looking to create my own version of God and my own set of rules, I'm just trying to do what works for me. I ain't out preaching it to others either," Acer finished.
Cotton was silent. "Another thing that really ticks me off is these damn churches jump on the lesbians, too. There ain't one word written in that book that says anything about two women being together," Acer added.
Blue brought Acer a beer. After hearing what he'd said, Blue was certain of one thing. Acer was a good man, not always perfect but a good man. Nothing more was said and the Sunday rides would continue.